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Ox-head Soup. — Dr. Kitchener's Receipt

A soup made from an ox cheek, celery, carrots, turnip, onions, peppercorns, allspice, sweet herbs, and parsley simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Ox-head Soup. — Dr. Kitchener's Receipt

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ox-cheek

  1. Soak the ox-cheek in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Break the bones if not done by the butcher and wash the meat in warm water.

  3. Place the meat in a pot and cover with cold water.

Simmer the soup

  1. Bring to a boil, skim off the scum, and add celery, carrots, turnip, onions, peppercorns, allspice, sweet herbs, and parsley.

  2. Cover the pot and simmer on low heat for about 3 hours.

  3. Remove the head, pour the soup through a fine sieve into a stoneware pan, and let cool overnight.

Finish and serve

  1. The next day, cut the meat into small pieces, skim the fat from the soup, and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Provides rich meat and collagen that softens during long simmering, enriching the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth to the broth as they cook down.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the broth as they soften.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor to the broth during simmering.
Black peppercorns
Release warm, pungent aroma into the broth during long simmering.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum after bringing to a boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise when the liquid first heats. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, carrot, turnip, allspice, marjoram, lemon, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, carrot, turnip, allspice, marjoram, lemon, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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